YUSHU, Qinghai, April 14 (Xinhua) -- At least one person died, many others were buried under the debris after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit northwest China's Qinghai Province early on Wednesday, a local official said.

"There are still lots of others who are injured and being treated at local hospitals," Zhuohuaxia, a publicity official of Tibetan ethnic group with the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu, told Xinhua.

The quake struck the Yushu County in Yushu prefecture at 7:49 a.m. with a depth of about 33 km. The epicenter is calculated to be 33.1 north and 96.7 east, the China Earthquake Networks Center reported.

Three aftershocks have been reported so far.

Earlier on 5:39 a.m., a 4.7-magnitude jolted the county with a depth of about 6 km, the center reported.

The epicenter is about 30 km away from the Jiegu Township, the government seat of the Yushu prefecture, and about 800 km away from Xining, the provincial capital.

"We have set up rescue headquarters in Jiegu," said Huang Limin, deputy secretary-general of the Yushu prefecture government.

"Soldiers have been dispatched to save the people buried in the collapsed houses," he said.

Telecommunications were temporarily cut after the quake, but have been restored, he added.

Two rescue teams from Qinghai and Tibet have been dispatched to the quake-hit region, a spokesman with the China Earthquake Administration said.

As more and more seismographs are installed in the world, more earthquakes can be and have been located. However, the number of large earthquakes (magnitude 6.0 and greater) has stayed relatively constant.

The earthquake that hit Southern China early morning on Wednesday continues to take its toll on the people of this remote region of Qinghai Province.

Earlier reports confirmed as many as 400 dead and 10,000 injured. The bone chilling weather has played a facture in the harsh condition facing thousands made homeless as a result the earthquake. The death toll has risen to 617 according to government reports.

Nearly two years ago a deadly earthquake hit the region causing great devastation and killing as many as 87,000 people in the neighboring Sichuan Province.

The bitter winter conditions that the Qinghai Province is experience has only added to the anguish many are facing after losing their home and personal possessions. Many survivors of the quake in the Western China are enduring subfreezing conditions without shelter or heat. The earthquake struck at a 7.1 magnitude.

An additional 9,000 residents are believed to be injured and 100 rescued from the rubble alive confirmed officials. Relief funds totaling $29 million allocated to disaster. The People’s Liberation Army soldiers have arrived at the region to head the rescue and relief efforts in the region along with a number of volunteer relief workers.

A rescue worker told The Associated Press that bodies of earthquake victims were “piled up like a hill.”

“You can see bodies with broken arms and legs and it breaks your heart,” said the worker, Dawa Cairen, who was described as a Tibetan with the Christian aid group Amity Foundation. “You can see lots of blood. It’s flowing like a river.”

The death toll from Wednesday’s powerful earthquake in a remote area of western China populated mainly by ethnic Tibetans has risen to 1,144 people with 417 still missing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late Friday.

The death toll from the magnitude 7.1 quake centered in the southern part of Qinghai Province had previously stood at 791 people with 294 others missing.

The latest figures, released to the media by Xia Xueping, spokesman with the emergency rescue headquarters, were current as of 5 p.m. Friday, the Xinhua report said.

The quake also left 11,744 people injured, including 1,192 serious cases, Xia was quoted as saying at a press briefing.

In addition to searching for survivors and treating the injured in the disaster zone, authorities were working Friday to provide safe food and clean water and to remove the bodies of dead people and animals to prevent an epidemic outbreak.

Rescuers during the day were able to still detect signs of life under debris and rescue some survivors, including a 13-year-old girl pulled out from a collapsed two-story hotel, according to reports.

Premier Wen Jiabao, who visited the worst-hit zone of Yushu County in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture on Thursday and Friday, was shown on state television Friday urging all-out rescue efforts.

As Tibetans come to terms with the loss of loved ones, its culture also lies in ruins

As the wall shook around him, Sonam Dandron snatched up his grandson and fled their home. Without a thought for his son, daughter and other relatives, he ran to check on a revered Buddhist lama living nearby on the hillside.

"I cried out when I saw he was trapped in the rubble and his leg was covered in blood. But he said 'go back and save your children'," the stonecutter recalled.

Three of his young grandchildren died when the quake struck Yushu Tibetan prefecture on Tuesday morning, wiping out Taklung monastery and its surrounding community. Yesterday, it emerged the death toll throughout the region had risen to 1,144. Many residents believe it is higher, citing the number of dead bodies they have seen gathered at various spots.

At Taklung, just east of Jiegu town, at least 88 of the 1,000 residents have died and a handful more remain buried in debris. Most of the monastery has collapsed; what remains is too dangerous for search teams to enter. Buddhas sit serenely amid the wreckage, but stupas (Buddhist monuments) have toppled on the hillside.

Homes have simply been erased; all that is left is a jumble of bricks and wood falling down the slopes. But for many in the area the damage to their culture is at least as painful as their homelessness and personal bereavement. "Of course I care about losing my grandchildren, but it's not so bad. The worst thing is the monastery," said Sonam Duden. "It's 800 years old, has so many treasures the monks and ordinary people all respect and protect. It is the most important thing for our lives."

The 62-year-old, whose family has lived by the monastery for generations, added: "Tibetans try to protect our culture and religion and language and heritage. I hope when people come and see what's happened they will help us to rebuild it."The emotion is shared by the young. "Having no monastery is like having no home," said Gazen Tsudran as she brushed away tears. The teenager was camped out with her grandmother and mother on what had once been their home.

Relatives arrived at lunchtime, hoping to take them somewhere safer. Many of Yushu's inhabitants had already fled. On the road out of Jiegu, vans and cars " some without windscreens due to quake damage " were stuffed with families and their belongings. But 83-year-old grandmother Tsechu put her foot down. "Even if you kill me, I will not move from this monastery. I want to die here," she said.

In an acknowledgement of Buddhism's importance to the region, the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, chose Taklung for his second surprise visit to the quake zone " clambering up the rubble, before addressing the crowd gathering in its courtyard. "In these rescue efforts, monks have shown a great performance; on many occasions I have seen them saving people," He said: "Please be assured we will not only save people and restore houses, but will do a good job of restoring your monastery." Throughout Jiegu, monks could be seen digging through the wreckage, sometimes in concert with the specialist rescue teams. Tenzin Yundun, the abbott of Sershul Monastery, said he had brought hundreds of monks to the area, with the support of the local government in the first 24 hours they pulled 60 survivors from collapsed buildings; soon after, they had provided 3,000 with tents and food.

They had even set up a solar powered charging station, so families could use their mobile phones to reach relatives. But While residents of the tent city that has sprung up on the town's racetrack were grateful for voluntary rescue efforts, there was widespread grumbling at what many perceived as the slow response of authorities.

A woman at the racetrack said: "This is not like the TV reports. They said a lot of donations are coming in, but go and have a look " people don't have any supplies."

In another sign of underlying tensions, many Tibetans insisted the earthquake had been set off by mining in the area, despite no evidence to suggest extraction can cause such tremors.

But three days after the quake struck, more substantial provisions were arriving. In the late afternoon, hundreds of people who had waited from early morning for tents triumphantly bore them away were triumphant as soldiers began to unload lorries full of supplies.

As night fell, scores of army trucks and other rescue vehicles were still heading into the area. Some teams had come from as far away as Southern Hainan Province. But there are some duties that only the monks can perform. Pulling their russet shawls over their heads to protect them from the grey dust sweeping across the racetrack, they chanted together in front of a truck. Its back was piled high with shrouded corpses; close by stood another dozen cars, their boots open to reveal more bodies wrapped in blankets or encased in mud.

Normally the monks would prepare the bodies for a sky burial. But the vultures are glutted, they explained, and will eat no more. Instead, the lamas said they would cut the corpses into pieces and feed them to the fish in a big river.

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- A total of 59,093 tents and 207,959 quilts had been distributed to survivors in the quake zone of northwest China's Qinghai Province by Sunday, the vice governor of Qinghai said Monday.

More than 110,000 padded coats, 1,670 tonnes of food and drinking water, 13,000 stoves and 1,520 tonnes of coal had been allocated since the quake that jolted Yushu prefecture April 14, said Zhang Guangrong.

The goods and materials met most of the needs of the survivors, Zhang told a press conference presided over by State Council Information Office in Beijing.

About 12,600 people in 34 teams nationwide took part in the rescue efforts and 1,455 people were rescued from the debris, Zhang said.

A total of 52 medical teams, involving 3,032 people, were dispatched to the quake zone and treated 9,145 patients. Of the injured, 2,674 had been transferred to capital cities of neighboring provinces, he said.

By Sunday, the death toll from the 7.1-magnitude earthquake had climbed to 2,220 with 70 people still missing. More than 12,000 were injured, and tens of thousands of residential buildings had collapsed.

All adobe houses in Gyegu Town of Yushu, the epicenter, were flattened, 80 percent of brick-concrete structures were toppled, said Zhang.